


Erised

by angeloscastiel



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-16
Updated: 2013-07-14
Packaged: 2017-12-15 03:04:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/844564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angeloscastiel/pseuds/angeloscastiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To Dean Winchester, son of the Ministry of Magic's most notorious Auror and responsible for a few filled cells in Azkaban himself, Hogwarts is a safe haven free of the Dark wizards he spends his summers hunting. But something is building within the castle walls, and Dean, his brother Sam, and the reclusive Head Boy, Castiel Milton, are at the centre of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

September first is Dean’s favourite day of the year. Most seventeen year old kids don’t look forward to school this much, but most seventeen year old kids don’t spend their summers camping in forests and hunting down dark wizards with their dad and little brother. John Winchester has been dragging the boys up and down the British Isles since Dean was five, but he used to leave them at the Leaky Cauldron for a few weeks at a time while he hunted down his latest target. As soon as Dean was old enough to get a wand, however, John started taking him along on hunts. Most parents panic about their newly-of-age kid Apparating to the shops down the road, Dean’s been breaking into the houses of known Dark wizards since he was eleven.

Which isn’t actually as great as it sounds because Dean’s nearly died about four or five times now, and this summer was the first summer that his little brother Sam came along as well. Sam’s fourteen – Dean was able to convince Dad to leave him behind on hunts for a few years after he started school – but it’s still been three months of constantly watching Sam, constantly worrying about him and constantly having to cast a hasty _protego_ over him, and a feast in the Great Hall and facing nothing more deadly than his NEWTs sounds really good right about now.

He and Sam make their way quickly through King’s Cross – Dad had dropped in at the Leaky this morning to tell them to have a good term, but Dean has his Apparition licence now so he can take them to the train. They push through the barrier to Platform 9¾ and Dean turns to Sam  “ – hey, Sammy – ” but his brother has already left to find his friends.

“Bye, Dean!” Sam calls hastily before disappearing into a carriage behind Ruby Barrett.

Dean shakes his head, momentarily offended, until a quiet voice says beside him, “Hard when they leave the nest, isn’t it?”

“Shut up, dick,” Dean responds easily before turning and pulling Benny into a hug. “How was your summer?”

“Nothing exciting,” Benny replies, stepping back and clapping Dean on the shoulder. “Come on, before the first years find our carriage.”

Feeling more relaxed than he has since summer began, Dean follows Benny onto the train and into their usual carriage where a redheaded girl is folded into one corner reading _The Hobbit_.

“Your Highness,” Dean greets.

Charlie grins at the sight of them, bounding over and enveloping Dean, then Benny, into a hug. “Missed you guys! How was summer? Dean, how many bad guys did you catch?”

“Seven all together. Two myself.” He grins, allows himself a moment of pride. “I’m a fearless warrior.”

“Gonna try out for the Quidditch team this year, _fearless warrior_?” Benny asks.

Dean scowls. “Sure. Hey Charlie, where’s your cat?”

“Being adored by Jo and Bela so he can’t be used as a weapon of mass terror,” Charlie replies, back in her seat and not looking up from her book.

If Hogwarts wasn’t appealing enough by being a) a home, b) one that is made of stone instead of canvas, and c) relatively devoid of Dark wizards, Benny and Charlie are reason alone for Dean to spend nine months of each year writing essays about stuff he doesn’t much care about. They’ve been his best friends since first year and he loves them almost as much as he loves Sammy – awkward, overly enthusiastic Charlie who dances while she walks, runs the chess club and devours Muggle fantasy literature like a starving man devours a three-course meal, and quiet Benny who, at six foot three and coated in a thick layer of ginger facial hair no matter how often he shaves, can best be described as a giant human teddy bear.

“Who’re the Head Boy and Girl this year?” Charlie asks.

“Who cares?” Dean’s not one for authority figures.

“Meg Masters and Castiel Milton,” Benny says.

“Castiel?” Dean repeats, surprised. “Wouldn’t have picked him.”

“He’s got _prefect_ written all over him,” Benny says. “Or written all over the stick he has shoved up his—”

“Leave him alone, he’s nice,” Charlie interrupts.

The Milton family are old, wealthy and incredibly high-flying. There are seven children – Michael, Lucifer and Gabriel, who are teachers at Hogwarts; Castiel, Balthazar and Samandriel, who are students, and a sister, Anael, who Dean is pretty sure is a Healer. Samandriel is in Sammy’s classes and is well-liked by everyone, Balthazar is in their year in Gryffindor and as charismatic as they come, but Castiel is shy and reclusive and never seems to have any friends at all. He’s in Hufflepuff, sits second-from-top for all of his subjects and draws so little attention to himself that Dean wouldn’t even know he existed if he wasn’t Balthazar’s twin.

All in all, he’s an unusual choice to lead the school.

The train ride to Hogwarts passes in usual fashion – they chat for a while, insult each other, catch up on news since they last saw each other, chase a particularly swift Chocolate Frog down the hallway, gorge on snacks from the trolley, dare each other to eat the liver, rotton eggs and brussel sprouts flavoured Bertie Botts and search for Charlie’s cat after a worried-looking Jo comes to their apartment to tell them that he’s run off somewhere and she can’t find him. In the end Charlie Summons him and is hit in the face with flying, unimpressed cat.

She loses five points from Gryffindor for using wands on the train, and Dean and Benny high-five her. There’s a certain dubious honour in managing to lose points before the term even _starts_.


	2. Chapter 2

September first is Castiel’s least favourite day of the year. He knows most students at Hogwarts count down the days until term starts and they can see their friends again, go back to the castle and continue learning magic, and the scene before him as he steps, stiffly, through the barrier and onto the platform proves it. There’s loud shrieking and yelling, girls hugging and boys clapping each other on the back, laughing and smiling, and Castiel is so far removed from it all he may as well be back in the Muggle part of the station.

Balthazar has already abandoned him with a quick “Later, Cassie,” and Samandriel came to the station separately with his Muggleborn friend. It’s a sad truth, but a truth nonetheless, that Castiel has no friends outside his family – even after six years of attending Hogwarts. There are people who will greet him by name if they see him, or who will sit next to him in class (usually because he knows the answers) or people who will engage him in polite conversation about his summer, but nobody he would call a friend, and certainly nobody he would voluntarily approach and make conversation with.

He stands, awkwardly hovering, while a couple of people he recognises from his year pass by him, murmur a “Hey, congrats on making Head Boy,” and he manages a barely-audible “Thanks” and musters a tight-lipped smile in return.

He looks towards the Prefect Carriage  where the Head Girl, Meg Masters, is waving impatiently at him. They’ve had classes together for the past six years, so their paths have naturally crossed (even Castiel, as reclusive as they come, knows the names and faces of everyone in his year) but they’ve never had much reason to talk. Castiel likes her well enough – she’s outgoing and a bit snarky, and has spent the last six years just toeing the line of rebellion – but she likes helping people, which means she’s made a good (but controversial) Prefect over the last couple of years.

Castiel also knows that neither of them would have landed the job if Professor Harvelle hadn’t decided to try a new system of appointing two polar opposites as Head Prefects in the hope they would balance each other out and each appeal to a different side of the student body. The stuffy, snooty Head Prefects of yesteryear always made glowing targets for hexes in the corridors, and Harvelle was hoping that by appointing more likeable Heads the hospitalisation rate would decrease dramatically.

Castiel has managed to survive the last six years with very few such attacks – he’s been hit with a Jelly-Legs jinx once, but even that was due to the poor aim of a fourth-year Gryffindor whose target had been the fifth-year Slytherin  behind Castiel. He simply isn’t noticed enough to warrant attack – but that’s probably going to change this year. It’s not a very comforting thought.

“Hiya, Clarence,” Meg greets him when he draws close enough. He frowns at the nickname; Meg gave it to him at the beginning of sixth year when they started doing rounds together, saying it was from an old Muggle movie, and he’s never worked out if she’s insulting him or not.

“Hello, Meg.”

“Ready to lead this fine institute of learning?”

“Frankly, no.”

She laughs, claps him on the back as she saunters into the Prefects’ Carriage. A group of earnest-looking fifth years are already waiting for their instructions – “Keen, aren’t they?” Meg whispers to Castiel. “Bless. Were we ever this enthusiastic about rounds?”

“No.”

Meg gives a brief welcome speech when all the Prefects have arrived, leaving Castiel the task of explaining the Prefects’ role and required code of conduct – “No offence, Clarence, but you’ve got a broomstick up your arse so I think you’re the best man for the job.”

The train ride is, as always, uneventful and boring. There has to be one Head in the Prefects’ Carriage at all times, and Castiel offers to stay behind so Meg can sit with her friends. She gives him a look that clearly says _what, you have no friends to sit with?_ and Castiel ignores her. It’s a well-known fact that he doesn’t, and it’s certainly not worth wallowing in self-pity about.

It’s not that he doesn’t _like_ people. He does. He finds them endlessly interesting and lively and, particularly coming from Hufflepuff, capable of such _good_ he feels sometimes awed by it. He loves his brothers and his sister, loves listening and observing and tucking away little details about the people around him. He remembers the birthdays of every Hufflepuff in his year and pins anonymous congratulatory notes to the common room noticeboard whenever one of those birthdays occurs, or whenever someone gets an Outstanding in a test or passes their Apparition licence. He prefers to remain anonymous, unseen, so the good he does isn’t somehow tarnished by him seeking validation or acceptance through it.

 As he walks through the Great Hall with his badge shining upon his robes, drawing stares and whispers and points, he’s already planning how he can fade again into the background.

 


End file.
